Most are still made of metal, but of thin tubes tied together by wires, creating the netlike effect of openwork weaving, and the graphic eccentricity of star charts.

Among the man-made materials are the black wires that Kirsty Little twists into dynamic forms and tips with colored wax, and the extruded plastic filament that Liz Lescault weaves into netlike hangings.

The whips beat in sync to pull water across the cell’s netlike collar to capture microscopic particles, even floating DNA, for food.

For the first installment of “Art in Resonance,” the American sculptor Janet Echelman created a netlike sculpture whose shape constantly changes with the wind.

Velvety and deep blue-green, each leaf sports a white central stripe that branches out into a netlike pattern of veins.